The Associated Students of Madison’s Student Council approved a student oversight board for the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin Wednesday night, which will give students a chance to propose ideas on how to allocate approximately $5 million of the funds.

ASM Chair Tyler Junger said the main focus of the committee would be reviewing proposals that addressed the goals for using funds for student services and curricular innovation.

“The committee won’t be an absolute authority on spending funds,” Junger said. “It will serve as a guide to review the proposals that come in and recommend them to the chancellor.”

Sound arguments need to be given for why a proposal is not chosen and a lot of care will be put into deciding how the funds will be used, Junger added.

After the end of the academic year, the Madison Initiative will generate approximately $10 million from differential tuition increases of $250 for in-state students and $750 for out-of-state students this year.

The Madison Initiative will continue incremental increases of these amounts every year for the next four years, according to a statement by Chancellor Biddy Martin.

Of the $10 million this year, $5.1 million has been redistributed for need-based financial aid, according to Aaron Brower, provost for teaching and learning.

Two committees are being put in place to assist in reviewing proposals for how to allocate the remaining funds. They are due Oct. 1 and Nov. 15 from department chairs and academic program directors, as well as all faculty and academic staff.

“The student board will play an important role in giving the student voice to the chancellor,” UW Dean of Students Lori Berquam said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald. “There are also three students on the [faculty] oversight committee, which will provide feedback and recommendation to the Chancellor.”

Berquam continued, saying three main goals of the Madison Initiative are to preserve affordability of UW education with need-based aid, to generate faculty and instructional support and to expand practices and innovation in teaching and learning, curricular design and student services.

One of the faculty members on the committee, Michel Wattiaux, assistant professor in dairy science, said he commits most of his professional time directly to teaching and therefore wants to remain committed to improving the quality and accessibility to a higher education.

“The overall initiative is something that was proposed by students who felt that there was room for improvement in areas of student services, courses, faculty, etc.,” Berquam said in the e-mail. “Therefore, it’s only appropriate that students serve on the oversight committee, having a key role in recommending proposals to chancellor. Students are, after all, the ones most directly accessing the proposed services.”